Her Majesty's Spider

Nkiru has lived her entire life as the queen's 'spider'. She has been assassin, protector, friend, and lover to her monarch. However, tensions begin to rise within the court over the matter of who gets to be the queen's heir - her birth daughter, Ma...

Chapter One

They called her the queen’s spider, because she may as well have had eight eyes. Whispers spoken behind painted wooden fans said that she was a changeling gifted with the ability to see everywhere at once. It was said that when she was a baby, she came from the faerie realm as a gift to queen Sanaa, a blessing from the faerie empress. Rumors circulating through the common people were less fanciful but no less miraculous. It was said that the spider was actually the queen’s shadow given life by the Goddess. She was a witch, she was a goblin, she was demon, she ate the souls of children, she sucked the marrow from your bones, she was cruel, she was vicious, she was calculating, and she always knew.

The only thing that anyone could agree on was her name. She was Nkiruka, or Nkiru, as she preferred. Not that anyone actually addressed her as anything other than ‘spider’.

The stories did not bother her. She found them to be inventive, and much more interesting than her true background. It was best that she was shrouded in mystery, anyway. The more she was feared, the better protected the queen would be.

Yet as close as they were, queen Sanaa had not actually seen her assassin in months. Nkiru was good at hiding from everyone, even those she was sworn to protect. Especially those she was sworn to protect.

Sanaa watched from the comfort of her balcony as the sun dropped behind the peaks of the Goddess’ Crest. As soon as the sky was dark, she saw thousands of paper lamps being lit in the town square and heard the high pitched song of a flute being carried on the wind. All of the world was celebrating the official recognition of her adopted daughter, Lumusi, as the new heir to the throne.

Sanaa rubbed her bare arms and looked up towards the sky. For the last hundred years queens had been adopting their heirs from noble, well-liked families instead of crowning their own daughters. The practice was all accepted, even expected. But that didn’t stop her from wondering whether or not the ancestors were looking down on the country of Simisola with approval.

So lost was she in her thoughts that Sanaa almost didn’t hear the padded footsteps as they approached her from behind. She shivered when she felt fingers slide gently over her shoulder. Nkiru did not wish to startle her queen.

“Nkiru,” Sanaa sighed. “You are not celebrating with the others.”

“Neither are you,” Nkiru pointed out, moving to stand beside her queen and folding her arms. “It is Lumusi’s naming day, I would expect you to be the most joyous of all.”